Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love

Dani Shapiro has written a searing, fast-paced narrative that reads like a mystery. In her memoir, Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love, she shares the excavation of an old secret, leading her to question who she has always been and the discovery of her new self.

Joining her husband in his genealogy quest, she humors herself with the potential findings and quickly forgets about it, until the results arrive. The news delivers a forceful stun. Her father is not her biological father and in her upturned world, everything becomes a quest for answers and a search for truth and identity.

Shapiro’s transparency and rawness are palpable, this woman can write her heart out. Her prose is sharp, quick and poetic, inviting readers into her world with a gentle invitation. She leads us through backwoods and dark alleys, and always to the light. This is a story about secrets, uncovering them and what we do with them, truth-telling and respecting the stories of others as we let it out, and an unquestionable love; the love we choose and allow to change us too.